The present invention relates to a magnetic compression laser driving circuit.
Magnetic compression circuits are known in the prior art for compressing a first series of voltage pulses, each having a first duration to form a second series of voltage pulses having a shorter duration. The first series of voltage pulses are typically generated by a thyratron circuit. The second series of voltage pulses can be used for application to lasers such as a metal vapor laser to effect generation of a corresponding series of laser beam pulses. Suce pulsed lasers are utilized in many applications, such as medical diagnostic applications, laser isotope separation of an atomic vapor (known as an AVLIS process) and many other applications.
A magnetic compression circuit generally utilizes a multi-stage LC network to provide suitable compression of a first series of voltage pulses to form a second series of voltage pulses having a shorter duration, which are suitable for application to a laser discharge circuit. Such magnetic compression circuits usually include a switching means at the last stage which has only one turn. This generally requires more core material, which reduces the efficiency of the magnetic compression circuit. The reduction in efficiency of the magnetic compression circuit can have dramatic effects with respect to the overall operation of the laser itself, particularly when high power laser applications are desired. For example, in an AVLIS process, the laser isotope separation process requires operation of laser power in the range of hundreds of watts of power or more for significantly long periods of time e.g., more than a thousand hours). Using a magnetic compression circuit having relatively poor efficiency to effect generation of a series of laser beams necessarily can affect the overall operation of the AVLIS process.